funstarfish

what am i missing? is it the rarity?

i think its pretty dumb

do not do a combo with sump whatever you decide. its nothing but a pain and i speak from experience. i would never again combine the two. whether or not you use one should depend on what you are trying to achieve. Fuges are counterproductive if you are doing a low nutrient high flow system. but in a clownfish anemone system, they have a valid use, providing both food and filtration. figure out what you'd like to keep and how you would like to acheive success, and you will see if a fuge is worth your effort. but keep the thing seperate so it may be disconnected or easily cleaned.

for this application, the only thing that makes sense in my head is a pressure rated external pump. you can always throttle them back but pumps are hard to throttle up for more flow!

There was a list of the 3 most important factors for SPS. Id say probably in this order...

1. stability

2. flow

3. lighting

keep alk. CA, salinity, nutrients, etc stable and i think you are singing a different song. now how to reach that stability? thats the question... auto topoff like bob said would be a start. also, 2 part supplements should be used for CA and Alk replenishment as they are balanced to keep swings and imbalanced (precip) in check.

open up that rockwork a bit is my suggestion

more flow more flow and more flow...

Oh, and on my 120, i should have had more flow. also, i will never ever again have a fuge built into my sump. I will also never use a beckett skimmer on a small tank.

and i should have had more flow.

don't worry, you can learn from my mistakes...

im setting one up right now...

A. plana is one of my faves, as are lotss of the polypy plating corals. I am a fan of thin branching stags with contrasting polyps.

its whats referred to as a cycle. things that were alive or are trying to live in the new system are dying and the algea is using nutrients up before you can test for them. it'll pass as things become more stable. week or two.

good to know. Do you guys dip the new arrivals?

so what would it take to get a super squirt

too bad that pendant is so [language filter] ugly...

glad to see you on here, look forward to meeting you in the coming months. I'll be setting up a tank in the next couple months and would love some good tank setup beer buddies...

yeah, Alk has a huge affect on Ph stability and should run at at least 7, but closer to 9. once you get your Alk back up, your kalk and CA reactors should keep it stable. It's hard to elevate levels with reactors, but it's simple to maintain them. Best of luck, good info all, this group is becoming more educated every day.

Also read up on vodka dosing though it's not the safest option. Upgrading the skimmer may be in hand as well. Scrub the rock in a seperate bucket, swish it, dip and swish in fresh salt water, then back to the tank.

How is your RO unit?

keep basting and skimming like crazy, use a micron bag if you can

probably, ill make a decision soon...

The skimmer is the one area you should nopt skimp on if there is one. That is your key piece. Im not sure how these perform, but i would say at least a euroreef rated to 90 gal would be a good place to start. look for a used one

I had a colony of that in a shaded area low in my tank, and a frag up high. the colony was a darker green, the frag turned that flourescent color and lightened up. Look for it to darken up in 10 days or so.

I'd go 30 tall if you are going 36 deep. It gives you a lot more for aquascaping purposes. I think when you plan a tank custom that size, it'd be worth it. Feel free to PM me for ideas. Now that I have no tank, all I do is plan my next one.